Driving On Road Shoulders

Here we have a classic problem that happens to our forest roads, this especially happens when people begin driving the roads in springtime when debris from winter has not yet been cleared off the roads.

A smaller sapling broke off and is blocking a portion of the road. Rather than remove the sapling people are driving around it on the shoulder breaking down the edge of the roadbed.

With a couple strokes with a pruning saw the sapling is made into two pieces easily removed from the roadbed. Now the road is clear and people will again be driving where they should have been driving, on the gravel packed roadbed.

Damage has already been done to the structure of the roadbed, luckily it was caught early or it could have been worse. One advantage this road has is that to up slope the drainage is in relatively good shape so it is likely that the water will continue to flow in the ditch and not flow down the road.

This is another classic example of an obstruction causing shoulder driving destroying the edge of a roadbed. The up slope drainage has filled over time with silt and vegetation. Being that both ditch and road are descending, if this ditch becomes overwhelmed by run off and begins to flow down the road it will very likely follow the path of least resistance and cut into the damaged shoulder washing away the materials of the roadbed.

Photos from FFPU volunteer road work reports